Wednesday 21 October 2009 13.07 EDT
First published on Wednesday 21 October 2009 13.07 EDT

The shadow business secretary, Ken Clarke, was slapped down by his party today after contradicting Conservative policy by suggesting mainland Britain was "not suitable" for onshore windfarms.

Clarke yesterday told a conference organised by the centre-right thinktank Policy Exchange: "My view is that those few wild and open spaces that we have left in Britain should not be used for wind turbines." He also said he thought windfarms should be built offshore.

Clarke today issued a clarification through the Conservative leader David Cameron's office: "At the event I was expressing an off-the-cuff view as a layman and not as a party spokesman on this subject. There is no change in Conservative party policy."

"We're very much in favour of renewables and we've got stretching targets to meet," said the shadow energy and climate change secretary, Greg Clark. "When it comes to wind, onshore wind has its place as well as offshore."

But a spokesperson for the British Wind Energy Association said: "All senior politicians need to make sure that their language doesn't give investors second thoughts about coming to the UK. Industry has a job to reassure everyone that delivering on the 2020 [carbon reduction] targets is not going to negatively impact on the environment and that any other impact is outweighed by benefits for climate change and jobs that wind energy will bring. That includes the Tory front bench."

Friends of the Earth said Clarke's comments raised concerns about the depth of commitment across the Conservative party to tackling climate change. The executive director, Andy Atkins said: "We desperately need more turbines, not fewer. Urgently developing a low-carbon economy must be a priority for any serious political party. David Cameron must ensure that key members of his front bench team do what they can to make this a reality – or replace them with people who will."

Clarke's remarks came after recent research from a Labour-linked thinktank Sera concluded 60% of all unsuccessful applications to build wind turbines were turned down by Conservative councils – twice as many as rejected by Labour councils. The Tories say this is explained by Conservative seats being largely rural ones.

Greg Clark added that a Conservative government would encourage more offshore and onshore windfarms, with the latter built so that local communities could share in the revenues from the electricity that was generated.

The secretary of state for energy and climate change, Ed Miliband, said he will write to Cameron, asking him to clarify the party's position on windfarms and seek signatures from the public on his website. Miliband has said in the past that objecting to windfarms should become as socially unacceptable as failing to wear a seatbelt while driving. "Ken Clarke's comments are further proof that the Tories just don't understand that the greatest threat to the British countryside is not wind energy but climate change," said Miliband.

Windfarms are becoming a faultline between the two parties with Labour's former deputy leader John Prescott telling a conference yesterday that local councils should be obliged to locate a windfarm in his area. "People who have a nice, chocolate-box view, they have bought that and I understand it, but you have got to strike a balance of what is in the national interest." Prescott called on local councillors to "meet their obligations" to build windfarms.

Greg Clark said that the lecturing communities would not be productive. "It's likely to be counterproductive if anything – what you need is a policy response. We've said that we would give all communities that host windfarms the right to keep six years of the business rates that they trigger."

He added: "If you look at the countries that have done well [on this], such as Denmark, a lot of these are community-owned and the enthusiasm for them comes from their roots as community enterprises."

In another development, the Tory MP Peter Luff will attempt to introduce legislation in a fortnight calling for a buffer zone between windfarms and housing. Using a ten-minute rule bill, Luff will call for a distance of half a mile to be put around smaller turbines, a mile for medium sized turbines and 1.5 miles for the largest turbines from residential areas.

The government is due to address this issue by announcing maps of renewable energy provision around the country, which would also identify optimal areas for windfarms.